While U.S. intelligence has been unable in two years to determine for sure if COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, Congress has decided it no longer wants to take the risk of funding medical research at labs controlled by Beijing or other American adversaries.
Read MoreTag: Congress
Congress Addresses Private Equity, Corporations’ ‘Predatory Purchasing’ of Homes as Americans Struggle with Rising Prices
Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase an affordable home as large investors increase their market share. The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing Tuesday to address private equity ownership of single-family rentals and the impact it’s having on average Americans.
“Today’s hearing will examine troubling issues regarding the mass predatory purchasing of single-family homes by private equity firms,” said Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.
Read MoreCommentary: Justice Department Colludes with Congress to Bolster the ‘Insurrection’ Narrative
This week produced yet another example of the shameless collaboration between the U.S. Department of Justice, the Democratic Party, and the national news media to destroy Donald Trump and everyone around him. The ink was barely dry on the not guilty verdict for Michael Sussmann, just one of many figures who acted as a pass-through between Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the FBI to manufacture the Russia collusion hoax, before the same players were up to their old tricks.
Members of the January 6 select committee blanketed the Sunday news programs last weekend promising bombshell revelations would shake the nation during a primetime hearing Thursday night. Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told CBS News’ Robert Costa the committee would present findings to show an “extremely broad . . . extremely well-organized” conspiracy to overthrow the government that day. What the committee uncovered related to the alleged conspiracy, Cheney warned, is “really chilling.’
Read MoreReport: Republicans Jockey for Leadership Role as House Expected to Flip
A number of Republican members of Congress are gearing up to launch a bid for GOP whip, should the House flip in November, Politico reported Thursday.
Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks has allegedly called up fellow Republicans in the House to get a picture of the type of support he would have if he made the attempt, three GOP sources told Politico.
Read MoreCommentary: Tragedy Strikes and Opportunists Circle America
There are few words available to describe the shock and loathing in the wake of the murder of innocent children. The tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas crystallizes these feelings as people seek to grapple with what went so wrong with an eighteen-year-old that he would choose to murder children, an adult in the school as well as shot his own grandmother before traveling to the school.
Read MoreSchumer Says No Gun Control Vote Anytime Soon: ‘Americans Can Cast Their Vote in November’
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that he will not immediately hold a vote on gun control legislation, following the mass shooting Tuesday at a Texas elementary school.
The New York Democrat says he does not think any such measure will attract enough bipartisan support to move forward.
Read MoreGOP Primary Turnout Could Signal Massive Republican Midterms Victories
High turnout in the 2022 Republican primaries could signal a red wave that allows the GOP to retake Congress in November, according to data from JMC Analytics & Polling.
As of Wednesday, GOP voters are projected to have made up about 54% of the turnout in the Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon and Pennsylvania primary races, according to JMC. Republican turnout increased to about 61% when the states that held primaries prior to Tuesday are included.
Read MoreCommentary: Joe Biden vs. We the People
The Biden Administration last June unveiled its “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.” Despite its anodyne-sounding name, the “national strategy” was anything but anodyne. The pamphlet represented the logical culmination of the Left’s cynical use of the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot as a means of ginning up large-scale, nationwide anti-Republican/anti-Trump voter sentiment.
The result, evinced again by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s disgraceful October 2021 memo directing the FBI to intrude on local school board meetings and crack down on anti-critical race theory parental revolts, has been a roiling cold war waged by the ruling class against us “deplorables” and our political “wrong-think.”
Read MoreCommentary: The Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act Is the Wrong Solution for American Mining
Everything in this world is either grown or mined, and if we don’t grow it or mine it in America, we import it. Events from the past few years, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have highlighted America’s hunger for metals, including copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum-group elements, and more. Therefore, Congress needs to boost domestic production. Instead, the majority is putting up more arbitrary hurdles, like the so-called Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act.
Read MoreRand Paul Blocks Swift Passage of $40 Billion Ukraine Aid Package
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday threw a wrench in the Senate’s plans to swiftly pass the $40 billion Ukraine package this week, delaying the vote until at least next week, and possibly beyond.
According to the Hill, Paul wanted to include language in the bill to expand the Afghanistan inspector general’s role to include oversight of the Ukraine funds. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered him a deal that would have set up votes Thursday afternoon on the funding bill and on an amendment from Paul.
Read MoreCommentary: The American People Must Relocate Power to the States
When American citizens look to Washington, D.C., they find much to be disappointed in and even less to believe in. The fundamental problem is that the federal government has, through its regulatory and spending powers, usurped much of the governing authority for the republic.
Read MoreGOP Reps Demand DHS Provide ICE Data Biden Is ‘Hiding’
Republican members of Congress are asking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for key immigration enforcement data they argue the Biden administration is hiding from the public, according to a letter exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The letter, sent Thursday, is led by Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy and co-signed by 19 other Republican lawmakers who argued that delayed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fiscal year 2021 Enforcement and Removal statistics that showed significant decreases in arrests only provided a “limited” look into the agency’s enforcement and removals.
Read MoreDeep-Blue Washington State Contains Possible GOP U.S. House Seat Pickup
Deep blue Washington State contains a U.S. House district that is being targeted for Republican pickup.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has announced that it is targeting Washington’s 8th Congressional District, which is currently represented by Democrat incumbent U.S. Representative Kim Schrier.
Read MoreCongress Demands Answers from CCP-Friendly HSBC Bank
Congress is demanding answers from a multinational British investment bank after American citizens’ accounts were frozen for running afoul of the Chinese Communist Party during the Hong Kong protests.
In a letter from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) to HSBC Group Chief Executive Noel Quinn, Congress raised “questions and concerns” regarding “restrictions placed on the accounts of American citizens and the freezing of accounts of Hong Kong activists, independent media, and civic groups,” asking the second largest bank in Europe to “justify” why such actions were taken and if “actions were requested by Hong Kong authorities or officials from the People’s Republic of China” in the wake of the June 2020 National Security Law.
Read MoreSupreme Court Hears Blockbuster Climate Case with Separation of Powers Implications
The Supreme Court heard arguments in West Virginia v. EPA on Monday, a blockbuster case that could have major ramifications in future separation of powers cases.
The case, which stems from an Obama administration climate rule, has wide-ranging implications for how the federal agencies may issue future regulations and rules, according to the parties that brought the case before the high court. States, environmental groups, large power utility companies, civil liberties organizations and pro-coal industry groups have inserted themselves in the case over the last several years, signaling the importance of the questions it has raised.
Read MoreCommentary: They Can’t Make Trump Go Away
In the election of 2016, Donald Trump appealed to citizenship, sovereignty, and borders. This was a direct entreaty to the people as the ultimate source of sovereign authority, bypassing the ruling-class elites that dominate the media and the universities; his appeal also ignored political experts, pollsters, and government bureaucracy. In the postmodern world, the nation-state is under attack everywhere as the source of all evil, the cause of war, selfishness, racism, white privilege, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and all the other irrational phobias that make up the universe of political correctness. The idea of the nation-state itself is said to be irrational and arbitrary.
All of this overwrought criticism of nationalism and the nation-state overlooks a very significant point developed in my new book, The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State: the nation-state is the only form of political organization that can sustain constitutional government and the rule of law.
No empire has ever been a constitutional democracy or republic, nor will constitutional government exist in global government. If, as is widely alleged, the dialectic of History is inevitably tending toward global governance and universal citizenship, then it is also tending toward tyranny.
Read MoreReport: Oklahoma GOP Senator Inhofe Plans to Retire
Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) is expected to announce his retirement as soon as Friday, according to multiple reports Thursday.
Read MoreBiden DOJ Hurts Americans’ Trust by ‘Doing Bidding of the Radical Left,’ Former Official Warns
Attorney General Merrick Garland has undercut his own promise to restore trust in the Justice Department by “doing the bidding of the radical left,” such as suing to block voter ID laws and launching FBI probes of school parents, a former top agency lawyer says.
Gene Hamilton, who served as counselor to Trump-era Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, told Just the News he hoped Garland would focus the department on core law enforcement priorities and away from ideological agendas but has been sorely disappointed.
“For all of his rhetoric, and for all of his talk about returning the Department of Justice to norms and all of those other such things, Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice has betrayed the trust of the American people,” Hamilton said during an interview Friday on the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Read MorePelosi Evasive on Extending Individual Stock Trading Ban to Spouses of Lawmakers
Democrats are weighing whether to extend an individual stock trading ban to spouses of lawmakers.
The Ban Conflicted Trading Act “prohibits a Member of Congress or certain congressional officers or employees from (1) purchasing or selling specified investments, (2) entering into a transaction that creates a net short position in a security, or (3) serving as an officer or member of any board of any for-profit entity.”
The legislation in its current form would not apply to the spouses of lawmakers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul has made headlines over the years with his millions of dollars in stock purchases, particularly with technology companies.
Read MoreInspector General Opens Investigation into Allegations That U.S. Capitol Police Have Been Illegally Spying on GOP Lawmakers
The inspector general for the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) has opened a formal investigation into allegations that the law enforcement agency has been improperly spying on Republican members of Congress, their staff, and visitors to their offices, the Federalist reported on Tuesday.
Concerns that the USCP have overstepped their bounds have been simmering for months, with some Republican lawmakers alleging that the Capitol Police have been transformed into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “personal Praetorian Guard.”
Read MoreBiden-Buttigieg DOT to Tap Infrastructure Spending to Promote Speed Cameras Nationwide
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s “National Roadway Safety Strategy” includes promoting the use of speed cameras in cities and towns as a “proven safety countermeasure.”
DOT received $6 billion to issue grants to “help cities and towns” with road safety, which was part of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Congress passed.
“That law creates a new Safe Streets and Roads for All program, providing $6 billion to help cities and towns deliver new, comprehensive safety strategies, as well as accelerate existing, successful safety initiatives,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a speech on Thursday about the launch of DOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy.
Read MoreCommentary: Replacing the Irreplaceable Nancy Pelosi
Last week there was quite a lot of news media chatter about swapping Hillary Clinton for Joe Biden on the 2024 Democrat presidential ticket, a fascinating concept that pundits couldn’t stop talking about. It didn’t receive nearly the headlines, but whispers involving the impending retirement of Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and her eventual replacement — have also begun in earnest.
Of course, there’s been no formal announcement that she’s leaving — either from the Speaker herself or the poohbahs at Democrat National Committee headquarters. But like all worst kept secrets, everyone with a brain and some knowledge of American politics understands that Pelosi shares characteristics with a ticking time bomb set to go off later this year.
With the prospects for Democrats holding the majority after this year’s federal midterm elections growing dimmer by the day, folks have initiated a political death watch for the soon-to-be 82-year-old gavel bearer. A large number of veteran party incumbents have officially indicated they’re heading for the exits after this session concludes. Combined with redistricting changes (after the 2020 census) and a basketful of “moderate” (they’re really not balanced, but that’s how the media refers to them) Democrats facing fierce headwinds in their swing districts, and the numbers bloodbath could/should be scary.
Read MoreAnalysis: Democrats in D.C. Brace for Two Winter Storms as Voting Bills Near Certain Failure
As Washington, D.C., prepares for its second winter storm in as many weeks, Democrats in Congress are all-in on their bid to pass their voting legislation and, if it fails, to abolish the Senate filibuster to advance it.
Their strategy has almost zero chance of success. Though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has brought his party’s voting bills to the floor throughout 2021, they have faced insurmountable opposition from Senate Republicans every time, who have relied on the filibuster to tank the legislation that they describe as a federal takeover of elections that could invite voter fraud.
In response, Schumer and most Senate Democrats have endorsed scrapping the 60-vote threshold, but in their way stand Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. The two centrist Democrats have said time and time again that they will not support abolishing the filibuster, denying Democrats the unanimous support they need to adopt the change even though they support their party’s voting legislation.
Read MoreRepublican Members of Congress Oppose Kevin McCarthy’s Proposal to Limit Insider Trading
After House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) proposed possible new legislation to limit the practice of insider stock trading among members of Congress, even some within his own ranks have anonymously voiced their opposition to such a plan.
As reported by the New York Post, McCarthy first made the suggestion to Punchbowl News, suggesting such a bill as one of many things he would want to see introduced if the GOP retakes the majority in November. Among other things, his proposal would restrict members to only holding professionally managed funds, as well as prohibit lawmakers from owning stocks in companies that are overseen by committees they serve on.
McCarthy pointed to the example of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has a net worth of over $100 million, and whose husband was found to have traded millions more worth of tech stocks. “I just think if you’re the Speaker of the House, you control what comes to the floor, what goes through committee, you have all the power to do everything you want,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. “You can’t be trading millions of dollars.”
Read MoreCommentary: Stop Calling It a ‘Voting Rights’ Bill
One-party rule and the destruction of an effective opposition might seem like a counterintuitive goal for “democracy journalists” pushing the “voting rights” legislation. But democracy journalists have been refreshingly candid in their goal to destroy competitive opposition in order to “save democracy.” Don’t believe me? Read below how these self-appointed heroes of democracy explain that nullifying their political opponents will preserve democracy from election results that contradict their political views.
This campaign has gone on for a long time in one form or another. But the New Republic offered this opinion piece early in the 2020 election season, “End the GOP—In order to save our democracy, we must not merely defeat the Republican Party.” Osita Nwanevu wrote:
“We cannot afford to wait the GOP out; its power is not a problem to be worked around. The only way to take on the problems posed by the Republican Party is to take on the Republican Party itself. The forces of demographic change and structural reforms must be joined with direct action. . . . We must wrest that choice back and set the country forward. We must end the GOP.”
Read MoreOverwhelming Majority of Americans Say Lawmakers Should Be Banned From Trading Stocks: Poll
The majority of Americans believe members of Congress should be banned from trading stocks while in office, according to a new poll.
Among a sample of Americans likely to vote in general elections, 76% believed lawmakers should not be allowed to trade stocks, according to a Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll first reported by The Hill.
Just 5% of respondents approved of lawmakers trading stocks, and 19% had no opinion.
Read MoreWashington Gov. Jay Inslee Announces Intent to Regulate Lying
Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced plans Thursday to introduce legislation that would regulate candidates and elected officials from spreading lies about elections that are likely to result in violence.
The legislation, which is still being written and has yet to be released, would be “narrowly tailored” to cover “false statements” made for the “purpose of undermining the election process or results,” according to Inslee’s announcement.
“This legislation attempts to follow the relevant U.S. and state supreme court opinions on this issue. We’re talking about candidates and elected officers knowingly throwing bombs at democracy itself when doing so is likely to result in violence,” Inslee said in a statement.
Read MoreVirginia Supreme Court Approves Final Congressional and Legislative Districts
The Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday approved the final version of congressional and legislative maps that will enact political boundaries for the next decade.
The process allowed for the judicial branch to determine the districts after the Virginia Redistricting Commission failed to produce any maps.
Read MoreFrom Fauci to Big Tech, GOP Already Has Clear Investigative Targets If It Wins Back Congress
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan is the most likely candidate to take over the House Judiciary Committee if the GOP wins back Congress next year. Ask him what he wants to investigate and who he wants to subpoena, and he doesn’t hesitate. Not even for even a second.
“Fauci,” he told Just the News, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. infectious disease specialist overseeing America’s pandemic response.
While the many conflicting messages and reversals of the pandemic response are ripe for investigation, Republicans like Jordan also want to press Fauci about why America was funding China’s bat research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through a U.S. nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance and why NIH revived a dangerous form of experimentation known as gain of function in 2017.
Read MoreCommentary: Democrats Promised An Insurrection But All They Got Was a Lousy Obstruction Case
History, it appears, is repeating itself—at least when it comes to the latest crusade to destroy Donald Trump and everyone around him.
For nearly three years, the American people were warned that Donald Trump had been in cahoots with the Kremlin to rig the 2016 presidential election. Trump-Russia election collusion, the original “stop the steal” campaign—that is, until questioning the outcome of American elections was designated a criminal conspiracy after November 2020—dominated the attention of the ruling class and the entirety of the national news media.
Every instrument of power—the FBI, a secret surveillance court, congressional committees, a special counsel—was leveraged to uncover the “truth” about the Trump campaign’s alleged dirty dealings with Mother Russia.
Read MoreProgressive Lawmakers Offer Unwitting Path for January 6 Prisoners to Sue Federal Government
Some of the most progressive Democrats in Congress are supporting new legislation that could help an unexpected group: those who were arrested and imprisoned without trial for playing a role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Democratic Reps. Hank Johnson (Ga.) and Jamie Raskin (Md.) on Wednesday reintroduced the Bivens Act, which would allow citizens to recover damages for constitutional violations committed against them by federal law enforcement officials.
The bill, which the lawmakers first introduced last year, seeks “to provide a civil remedy for an individual whose rights have been violated by a person acting under federal authority.” It would do this by adding five words — “of the United States or” — to a longstanding provision enacted in 1871, known as Section 1983, which gives individuals the right to sue state or local officials who violate their civil and constitutional rights. The additional words would include federal officials in the statute.
Read MoreCommentary: It Is So Important Not to Offend Those Breaking Our Laws
The adage that “actions speak louder than words” may be true, but the right words applied to the right situation can inspire actions that otherwise would not be taken.
We are seeing this in dramatic fashion in our current border crisis, which now appears to be the realized dream of Barack Obama when he spoke about “fundamentally transforming the United States of America” 13 years ago. We as a nation are undeniably transforming, and most Americans would argue for the worse. The wheels of that transformation have been lubricated by the enabling language of the anti-borders Left.
Read MoreInstagram Rolls Out Teen Safety Features One Day Before CEO Will Testify in Congress
Instagram unveiled a host of child safety measures and parental controls for its app just one day before chief executive Adam Mosseri is due to testify in Congress.
“At Instagram, we’ve been working for a long time to keep young people safe on the app,” Mosseri wrote in a blog post. “As part of that work, today we’re announcing some new tools and features to keep young people even safer on Instagram.”
The new features include controls allowing parents to set time limits for their kids’ use of Instagram, providing resources on how Instagram works and options allowing kids to notify parents if they report another user. Instagram will also launch its “Take A Break” feature, which asks users to take some time away from Instagram if they’ve been scrolling for a while.
Read MoreCongress Wants to Make Big Tech Responsible for Online Speech
While there is agreement between large factions of both Republicans and Democrats that social media companies should be liable for certain third-party content hosted on their platforms, the parties differ on what that content should be, and why platforms should be liable in the first place.
Congress appeared no closer to finding common ground following a House Energy and Commerce hearing Wednesday, in which lawmakers considered several bills seeking to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
“Wednesday’s hearing made clear that Republicans and Democrats have drastically different solutions to hold Big Tech accountable,” Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who serves as Ranking Member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Republicans are fighting for free speech, while Democrats continue to push for more censorship and control. Bipartisanship will not be possible until Democrats agree that we need less censorship, not more.”
Read MoreFormer D.C. National Guard Official Says Generals Lied to Congress About January 6th
A former member of the D.C. National Guard has accused two Army leaders of perjuring themselves before Congress in an attempt to rewrite the history of the military’s response to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Col. Earl Matthews, a high-level Pentagon official during the Trump administration, has authored a 36-page report criticizing the Pentagon’s inspector general for what he believes is an error-riddled account created in order to protect a top Army official who argued against sending the National Guard to the Capitol, according to Politico.
Read MoreRand Paul: ‘Fauci Should Go to Prison for Five Years for Lying to Congress’
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) on Thursday said he thinks Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, should go to prison for five years for lying to Congress. The Kentucky senator has repeatedly sparred with the NIAID director over the funding of gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan lab.
“Fauci should go to prison for five years for lying to Congress. They’ve prosecuted other people, they’ve selectively gone after Republicans, but in no way will they do anything about him lying,” he told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business.
Read MoreCommentary: Steve Bannon Deserves His Day in the Court of Public Opinion
If Steve Bannon can be indicted for “contempt of Congress,” and the approval rate for Congress at about 21 percent, the Biden Justice Department should probably just go ahead and indict the other 270 million Americans who also have contempt for Congress. The specious indictment of our friend Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress is just another demonstration that Democrats consider the process to be part of the punishment and are using it to harass and bankrupt another conservative enemy.
Bannon, to his credit, is having none of it and has decided to fight back in the court of public opinion as well as in the court of law.
Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein of POLITICO report the Justice Department on Sunday night accused Steve Bannon’s defense team of lodging “frivolous” legal complaints in order to cause a public dust-up with prosecutors as he battles criminal charges for attempting to thwart the House’s Jan. 6 select committee.
Read MoreSteve Bannon Files Motion to Make Public All Documents in Contempt Case
Steve Bannon is pushing for documents related to his current contempt-of-Congress case to be released publicly, according to a new report.
The 67-year-old former Trump adviser’s attorneys have filed an opposition to the U.S. district court’s protective order for discovery, which would prevent both the defense and the prosecution from releasing evidence or documents to the public.
Read MoreNewt Gingrich Commentary: Thanksgiving, an American Tradition
Thanksgiving means a lot more than turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie.
More than 401 years ago, courageous pilgrims set sail across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower to start a new life in North America. They arrived at Plymouth on November 11, 1620, after a dangerous crossing and founded a new settlement where they could practice their faith freely.
Read MoreMarriott Refused to Host Conference on Uyghur Genocide Because of ‘Political Theme’
The Marriott hotel in Prague refused to host a conference on its premises for activists and leaders fighting for the rights of Uyghurs in China, Axios reported.
In an email sent to the World Uyghur Congress, which has attempted to shine a spotlight on the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China, the hotel cited the need for “political neutrality” as the reason the conference was denied the venue, Axios reported.
“Unfortunately, I have to inform you that we are not able to offer the premises,” the email read, Axios reported. “We consulted the whole matter with our corporate management. For reasons of political neutrality, we cannot offer events of this type with a political theme. Thank you once again for your time and understanding.”
Read MoreBiden’s FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn Wants to ‘Silence Dissent,’ Top Senate Republicans Say
Senate Commerce Republicans are whipping opposition to the nomination of Gigi Sohn, one of President Joe Biden’s picks for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Biden nominated Sohn, former FCC counsel under Tom Wheeler and Ford Foundation alum, to an empty spot on the commission in late October, along with current acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to the permanent position.
While Republicans have been quiet in their response to the nomination of Rosenworcel, many are pointing to Sohn’s public statements on conservatives as reasons to oppose her confirmation.
Read MoreAnalysis: Five Controversial Policies Tucked Inside $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Passed by Congress
The final $1.2 trillion INVEST in America Act passed the Democrat-led House in a late night vote on Friday. Tucked away inside the infrastructure bill are some controversial policies, including these five:
1. The cryptocurrency tax provision in the Senate version of the bill was the subject of scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans. The language was not amended in the final bill that passed the House. The legislation includes an IRS reporting requirement for brokers of cryptocurrency transactions.
2. Under the “national motor vehicle per-mile user fee pilot” section of the bill, there is a pilot program to create a vehicle miles traveled system for taxing drivers based on their annual vehicle mileage. During his confirmation process, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg floated the idea of taxing motorists based on the number of miles they travel each year as a way to partly fund the legislation. The Biden administration backed off of full-scale development of the controversial proposal, settling instead for a pilot program.
Read MoreCommentary: Taking the Infrastructure Bill Hostage Didn’t Work
Back in August, New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait blessed the strategy of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to withhold their votes for the Senate’s bipartisan physical infrastructure plan until that bill was effectively linked to a bigger, broader, and surely partisan, measure investing in a range of items from climate protection to universal preschool. He argued that “ransoming the infrastructure bill” would turn the tables on the party’s moderates:
Historically, most partisan bills are shaped by the preferences of the members of Congress closest to the middle, and their colleagues on the political extreme simply have to go along with it. … This time, the left has real power. Progressives can credibly threaten to sink a priority that moderates care about more than they do.
Twice in the past two months, most recently last Thursday, the House progressives successfully executed this strategy, blocking attempts by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pass the bipartisan infrastructure legislation before an agreement is reached on the larger “Build Back Better” bill.
Read MoreTwo Border Patrol Agents Fired, Dozens More Punished for Involvement in Facebook Group ‘I’m 10-15’
Two U.S. Border Patrol agents have been fired in connection with a probe that found roughly 60 of them committed misconduct while participating in a private Facebook group that mocked migrants and lawmakers, investigators said Monday.
Most agents’ penalties were significantly reduced from those recommended by an internal agency review board, according to a House Oversight and Reform committee staff report obtained by the Associated Press.
Read MoreCommentary: $28 Per Day Triggers IRS Surveillance Program
The entire Democrat multi-trillion dollar socialist spending scam is bad for Americans, and bad for our economy. One particular provision that is especially terrible is their “IRS Surveillance” program, which would grant the government access to spy on nearly every Americans’ bank accounts. Their bill wants to use $80 billion of taxpayer funds to hire 85,000 more bureaucrats, nearly doubling the size of the IRS, to go through individuals’ personal banking information.
President Biden, and his colleagues in Congress, must have realized how unpopular this policy was with the American people, so they decided to make some “changes.” They created the impression they were raising the threshold in transactions individuals would need to hit before triggering the IRS to spy on their personal banking accounts.
Read More‘Ban Buying and Selling of Individual Shares of Stock’ by Lawmakers: Peter Schweizer
Peter Schweizer, author of the 2011 book “Throw Them All Out,” said it’s still “very hard” to prove a member of Congress has engaged in insider trading despite the passage of the STOCK Act almost 10 years ago.
Schweizer called on Congress to ban lawmakers from buying and selling individual stocks.
Read MoreTexas, Missouri Attorney Generals Sue Biden Administration over Border Wall
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a second joint lawsuit against the Biden administration on Thursday over the ongoing border crisis.
Meeting on the banks of the Rio Grande River south of El Paso, Texas, the two Republican attorneys general said they are demanding that the federal government continue to build the border wall using funds Congress appropriated for its use. One of Biden’s first acts in office was to halt construction of the border wall, which they argue violates federal law.
Additionally, it currently costs taxpayers $3 million a day to not build the wall due to contractual obligations with the construction firm tasked with building it.
Read MoreOver 60 Percent of Americans Say Biden’s Policies Are to Blame for Accelerating Inflation
Over 60% of Americans said that President Joe Biden’s policies were at least somewhat responsible for the accelerating inflation in the United States, a new poll shows.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll released Tuesday shows that around 40% of respondents said that the Biden administration’s policies were “very responsible” for higher inflation, while 22% said that they were “somewhat responsible.” The poll results come as inflation levels hit record highs and economists predict that inflation, along with supply chain shortages, could persist into 2022.
Read MoreFacebook Reportedly Plans to Change Its Name
Facebook is reportedly planning on rebranding and is set to announce a new company name next week, according to The Verge.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg intends to announce the new name at the Facebook Connect conference on Oct. 28, a source familiar with the matter told The Verge. The rebrand is reportedly an attempt by Zuckerberg to shift public perception of the company as a social media platform to a technology conglomerate with several different products beyond the Facebook social network.
Read MoreIRS Rule Appears to be Flouted in Pro-McAuliffe Video Starring Kamala Harris Played at Virginia Churches
Hundreds of churches across the state of Virginia have been airing a political ad featuring Vice President Kamala Harris encouraging churchgoers to vote for Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race, for which early voting has begun.
The video is raising questions about the legality of the ad being shown in houses of worship. The vice president calls upon Virginians to “raise your voice through your vote,” specifically, a vote for Democrat McAuliffe, whom Harris refers to as “the leader Virginia needs at this moment.”
Read More